--- title: "Khilafat Movement: 1919-1924 Campaign Explained" description: "The Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) was an Indian Muslim campaign to save the Ottoman Caliph, merged with Gandhi's Non-Cooperation. Key UPSC modern-history topic." url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/khilafat-movement" --- [New](https://modeldiplomat.com/) # Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026 TL;DR - The Khilafat Movement was a pan-Islamic political campaign in British India (1919–1924) demanding preservation of the Ottoman Caliphate after World War I. - Why did the Khilafat Movement collapse? - How was the Khilafat Movement linked to the Non-Cooperation Movement? - What was the Hijrat of 1920? - Who were the principal leaders of the Khilafat Movement? [Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026 Go beyond the definition ## Research Khilafat Movement like a delegate Model Diplomat's AI drafts position papers, speeches, and country research with real sources — built for MUN and politics students. ## Timeline 1. 10 August 1920 The movement crystallised after the Armistice of Mudros (October 1918) and intensified as the punitive terms of the Treaty of Sèvres () became known, partiti… 2. 5 February 1922 Gandhi suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement after the Chauri Chaura incident of , in which a mob burned a police station, killing twenty-two policemen, dis… 3. 3 March 1924 More decisively, the cause itself was overtaken by events in Turkey: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's nationalist movement abolished the Sultanate in November 1922 an… ## Positions at a glance ### Indian National Congress A defining feature of the Khilafat Movement was its fusion with the Indian National Congress's struggle. Mahatma Gandhi seized the Khilafat grievance as an opportunity to forge Hindu-Muslim unity against British rule, and the Khilafat and the Punjab wrongs (the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919) became the twin pillars of his programme. The Khilafat Committee adopted Gandhi's method of non-violent non-cooperation, and at the Nagpur session of the Congress in December 1920 the two movements were effectively merged into the Non-Cooperation Movement. Volunteers surrendered titles and honours, students left government schools, lawyers boycotted courts, and foreign cloth was burned. A distinct strand was the Hijrat of 1920, in which thousands of Muslims, declaring India a land hostile to Islam (dar-ul-harb), emigrated to Afghanistan, only to be turned back at the frontier, suffering great hardship. ### All-India Muslim League Historiographical controversy surrounds the movement's legacy. Some scholars, and figures such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, criticised the injection of religious sentiment into mass politics, arguing it set a precedent for communal mobilisation that would later harden into separatism. The Moplah (Mappila) rebellion of August 1921 in Malabar, which began as anti-British and agrarian agitation but acquired communal dimensions with attacks on Hindu landlords, strained the Hindu-Muslim unity the movement had celebrated. Critics also note the irony that Indian Muslims agitated to preserve an institution that Turkish nationalists, exercising their own self-determination, chose to abolish. ## Research it like a delegate Research on modeldiplomat.com ## Ask a follow-up about Khilafat Movement Open a cited briefing in Model Diplomat search — timelines, positions, and sources you can use in committee or exam answers. [Start research on Khilafat Movement](https://modeldiplomat.com/search?q=Explain%20Khilafat%20Movement%20%E2%80%94%20key%20dates%2C%20actors%2C%20positions%2C%20and%20sources) Example In November 1919, the Ali brothers and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad convened the first All India Khilafat Conference in Delhi to protest the dismemberment of the Ottoman Caliphate after World War I. Keep learning ## Go deeper than the definition [Explore all Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams lessons](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services)[Test yourself with a quiz](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/quiz/civil-services) ## Take Khilafat Movement beyond the glossary Ask the AI research engine built for diplomacy — get briefings, position papers, and speeches with sources you can cite in committee.